• Mary Ní Lochlainn studies the habits that lead to better health in old age.
• She incorporates some of these habits into her own life to be as healthy as possible as she ages.
• She works out, takes vitamin D, and practices intermittent fasting.

A researcher who studies aging shared what she does to help it stay healthy as she grows.

Mary Ní Lochlainn, a geriatric medicine researcher at King’s College London, told Business Insider that the development of some healthy habits when you’re young can help you maintain your health and strength well into old age.

“People think ‘I’ll do all this later,’ but actually it’s much better to do it now,” she said, because people are more likely to do it. maintain healthy behaviors throughout their lives if they start early.

As people live longer, more products and services appear that promise better health and longevity. Some of them, like the buzzy plasma exchange procedurecan cost tens of thousands of dollars. But the habits that Ní Lochlainn, 34, considers most important for healthy aging don’t cost much.

Ní Lochlainn, a medical graduate from Trinity College Dublin and a doctorate in geriatric medicine from Kings College London, shared some of the habits she has incorporated into her own life with BI.

Resistance training as well as cardio

Ní Lochlainn bikes 10 kilometers every day to and from work and takes tennis lessons every week, as well as resistance training once a week for an hour with a personal trainer.

While aerobic exerciselike cycling, is great for your cardiovascular system. “Resistance training is one of the best things you can do to age healthily,” she said.

We start to lose muscle mass around our thirties, and maintain it until old age helps prevent falls and fragility. It’s important to build muscle mass when you’re younger so you have less to lose as you get older, she said.

This is consistent with research: A 2022 study of 99,713 men and women ages 55 to 74 by researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that participants who did resistance training once or twice a week plus cardio, mortality rates were 41% lower than sedentary participants over a seven- to 10-year follow-up period.

Take vitamin D

Vitamin D is important for bone health and osteoporosis prevention, Ní Lochlainn said, but it’s “one of those things that people forget about until they get older.”

She takes vitamin D supplements because people in the UK, where she lives, generally don’t get enough. This is also the case in the United States: according to the Office of Dietary Supplements, one in four Americans does not consume enough vitamin D.

The ODS recommends adults ages 19 to 70 get 15 micrograms of the vitamin each day, whether in supplements, sun exposure, or foods such as milk, cereal, and oily fish.

Intermittent fasting

Ní Lochlainn practices intermittent fasting by not eating between her dinner and breakfast in the late morning.

She said the evidence for its effectiveness for longevity is “pretty compelling.”

Evidence for the the benefits of intermittent fasting comes from animal studies that suggested it can extend the lifespan of rodents, worms, fish and monkeys, BI previously reported. But while experts believe it helps reduce mindless eating, there isn’t enough evidence to confirm that it increases longevity in humans.